Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed
Our Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and Competent Spending ·
Investment for Productivity ·
Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental Protection and Energy ·
Security and Equal Rights ·
Justice and Peace Everywhere ·
International Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives
oppose all of these Let’s End Our National Nightmare Let’s
Restore Our American Dream Obama’s
continuing campaign: Change.Gov More
on Conservative opposition to our American Dream Washington State’s 4 Major Needs Federal Funding for Health
and Education ·
A
Progressive Income Tax ·
Replacing
Republican Legislators Quote of the Week Life without
thankfulness is devoid of love
and passion. Hope without thankfulness
is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue
divorced from thankfulness is
maimed and limps along the spiritual road.
John
Henry Jowett
(1864-1923)
Calendar of Events
Tuesday, December 2
at 8 PM at Comedy Underground (
Thursday, December 4
at 6:30 PM at Chapel at the
Communication, Opportunities and Petitions
Communication with Our Members and Feedback
Some of My Favorite
Paradigms Are:
1. Our human condition is that
we dream (form visions) and suffer pain that our dreams are not realized, require a
struggle to realize, and any realization is temporary. We may classify our responses into four
categories:
1.
Trying to Be GOD, believing that by working hard enough and smart
enough, we can realize our dreams.
2.
Trying to Be Less than Human, believing that we are victims, who can’t
realize our dreams and thus should avoid dreaming.
3.
Trying to Distinguish which Dreams We can
Realize and which We Can’t, never committing to our dreams enough to persevere.
4.
Recognizing that Realizing our Dreams Will
Be Limited, trying to
realize our dreams and to recover from either success or failure.
2. Our best plans consist of:
1. Comprehensive Dreams
2. Identified Obstacles
to the realization of our dreams
3.
Creative Strategies to overcome our obstacles
4.
Defined Tactics (consisting of the what, when, who and how of
actions), Organized into projects,
and Implemented by project teams
with timelined and budgeted assignments.
3. Our
Liberal Values
As
Liberals, we believe:
1.
All Americans should have
the same freedoms and opportunities.
2.
We are each responsible
for protecting the freedoms and opportunities of all Americans.
3.
We and our government
should be competent and compassionate, using our freedoms and opportunities
wisely and helping those with fewer freedoms and opportunities than the rest of
us.
4.
Our
4. Our Political
Priorities
· Fair Clean Elections and Open Government
· Fair Taxes and Competent Spending
· Investment for Productivity
· Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income
·
Environmental Protection and Energy
· Security and Equal Rights
· Justice and Peace Everywhere
· International Cooperation and Leadership
Conservatives oppose all of these
Let’s End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream
More
on Conservative opposition to our American Dream
5.
· Federal Funding for Health and Education
· Replacing Republican Legislators
6. We need to return from Borrow, Consume and Speculate to Earn, Conserve and Invest.
We need to change our mindset to expecting to sustain ourselves by
obtaining our fair earnings related to our production, instead of borrowing and
speculating. For spiritual, social and
environmental reasons, we need to conserve (reduce, reuse and recycle) instead of
consuming. We need to invest to increase
our productivity, instead of spending to consume and speculate.
7. Traffic Congestion Is Not
the Basic Problem. Lack of affordable housing near jobs produces
urban sprawl produces commuting produces traffic congestion produces wasted
energy and pollution.
Special interests focus our
attention upon responding to traffic congestion through transportation
fixes. We need to first focus our
attention upon the basic issue: affordable housing near jobs. For more.
Opportunities
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Michael Moore’s latest movie ‘Slacker Uprising’ for free.
Sign up for a free
Brave New Films subscription to inform more people about the Real John McCain.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Wellstone
Actions tools of election protection.
Learn about Salsa
management tools for non-profits.
Petitions and Donations
Tell
our Attorney General to not use the Department of Justice to suppress Ohio
voters.
Tell
President Bush that contraception is not abortion.
Tell
the world you pledge to turn our dismal human rights record around.
Tell
Barack Obama that you support his closing Guantanamo Prison. That’s
just the beginning.
Tell
Barack Obama to shut down Torture School of the Americas. For more.
Tell
Barack Obama to not appoint war hawk Robert Gates.
Tell Barack
Obama that you support his clean energy priority.
Tell Barack
Obama to repower, refuel and rebuild America
Tell
your congress members to include aid for states in the stimulus package.
Tell
our Environmental Protection Agency to make climate change and scientific
integrity priorities.
Tell our
Bureau of Land Management to protect NW Colorado from oil drilling pollution.
Tell our Bureau of Land
Management to protect Oregon’s coastal forests.
Tell our National Marine Fisheries
Service to support a better fisheries management plan.
Tell your
Senators and Congress member to quit supporting their oil company contributors.
Commentaries From Our Members
Greg Gille: The American Awakening
The
American Awakening
In
the early days of the primary I heard Barack Obama speak for the first
time. It only took that one time and I knew he was the man we needed to
bring sanity back to a government that has gone far astray in the self serving
interests of its leaders. The truly unique aspect of this election was the
astonishing fact that the majority of the electorate had changed and was ready
for an entirely new direction and the media pundits and the republicans had NO
CLUE that this was the case. But Barack Obama knew this and said it many times
on the campaign trail, in fact, the success of his entire campaign was banking
on this fact.
But
the media went on and on about their historical election maps and phony polls
(at least up until the economic crisis hit) that showed John McCain was gaining
ground, when there was no real basis for this fabrication. . . owing to the
dishonorable and despicable smear campaign with no ideas that he was running
under the direction of the RNC and other behind-the-scenes cronies.
Another
truly remarkable thing is that a majority of Americans stood up and voted for
change because they refused to let the American dream die, in spite of years of
Bush and republican rule that systematically and methodically worked to
marginalize, impoverish, and ultimately destroy the middle class, transferring
all of its wealth upwards to the already wealthy. The underlying motive
was to destroy the "idea" of
But
after all the political, economic, social, legislative, and civil dysfunction
that has occurred in plain view for all to see, the republicans still don't get
that THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE and that they have brought ruin upon
themselves. If they think they are going to reconstitute their party and
run on guns, gays, God, abortion, and small government again, they are sadly
mistaken. But I say, go for it and the republican party will be relegated
to the status of a permanent minority, if they continue to exist at all.
The only hope of the republican party is if they prove that they are better at
governing than the democrats, which at this point is not too likely. Also
for that to happen, the democrats would have to demonstrate their own failure
at governing, just as the republicans have so sorely done.
Essentially,
this election was a referendum on the failure of the conservative movement as a
viable system of governance, a failure that could not go unnoticed in the
Bush/republican era where for the first time, there was no resistance to the
unbridled implementation of the conservative agenda. It is self
destructing as this message is being written, the first evidence of which was
the abject failure of the McCain campaign. . .which was clear early on to all
those who had the eyes to see.
Even
now the republican party continues to implode before our eyes. Did they
really think they could ignore the needs of the people, support the outsourcing
of our jobs, deregulate everything, favor the wealthy class, conspire to erode
human and civil rights, destroy the environment, and make life harder for us
all on every front, and then come election time bullshit their way back into
power with divisive fear mongering and smear tactics instead of real
ideas? Think again. This kind of campaigning will NEVER AGAIN be
successful, because the people have changed and yet the republicans still don't
perceive it.
One
thing is for sure: there is no going back to the way things were.
We can only go forward to a better day. In closing, I say with great relief
that my faith in the American people, just as Barack said, has been
vindicated. Greg Gille
David Iles: On Bailing Out Bad
Companies
The
federal reserve is loaning two trillion to the financial institutions that
created the current melt down of the economy.
Naomi Klein talks on Democracy Now about the current nearly three trillion
dollar looting of US taxpayers by the financial companies that created the corrupt
financial policy that is being exposed more each pass sing day. So far the
banks have used the 250 billion dollar bailout that have already received to
pay share holder dividends, board and ceo and executive salaries and bonuses,
and plan on using the rest to buy other banks, an idea the government is
encouraging. Paulson and the treasury have given banks such as New York
Melon, a no bid contract to handle the bailout they actually will not publish
the amount that the bank will receive for their services. Despite the fact that
they are in the financial meltdown and deregulation mess well past their hips.
Even more of a concern is the fact that the federal reserve is giving out two
trillion dollars to the banks in loans that are backed by undisclosed assets.
They continue to allow the thirty to one leveraging that has proven to be such
a disaster in the past, so there is a good chance that these loans are backed
up by assets worth a thirtieth of the value of the loan. They have consistently
redacted the value of the backing assets in any publication released to the
public.
Listen to Naomi Klein on Democracy Now. David
Iles
Rich Austin: Bailed Out Automakers Should
Meet Some Requirements
Those who
object to bailing out the Big Three automakers raise some interesting
issues. One all-important concern,
however, is being left out of the
discussion, or is being trivialized.
If the Big
Three go under, hundreds of thousands of
It is a
vicious cycle. The only constant is that
the wealthy will remain wealthy even as poor and middle class families
suffer. So let‘s rethink any proposed bailout.
Why not a structured bailout? How
about giving pink slips to the CEOs of the Big Three after cutting the ripcords on their golden
parachutes? Same with the Boards of
Directors. They can all be replaced by
fairly-compensated Trustees. Freeze dividend payments to shareholders until the
companies are returned to solvency
Remember,
workers have no say in the design of the cars they make. The Big Three must be
made to re-engineer, then re-tool their auto plants. Quality, efficient, environmentally-friendly,
affordable automobiles are not futuristic concepts. This nation has the wherewithal to produce
such cars. Now all we need is the will.
Too many
“friends of labor” who loved autoworkers
prior to the November 4 elections, and talking heads on TV, are now saying that
the unions need to make concessions.
Huh? That’s like inviting those
workers to participate in a ten lap race after nine laps have already been
run. What’s more, pundits and politicos evidently suffer from selective memory loss.
Over the past three decades workers’ wages have stagnated, yet the wealthiest 10% in
our nation have grown richer and richer.
Autoworkers have seen hundreds of thousands of their jobs moved
offshore. United Auto Workers are
bearing a larger share of the cost of
their health care than they did three decades ago. Pension expectations have
been lowered. Jurisdiction has been
lost. And now the idea is to elicit even
more concessions?
What about
the wealthy stockholders who received hefty dividends over the past 30 years? Are they being asked to give a little of that
wealth back? Where is the call for the big-wigs at the Big Three to return
their ill-gotten gains?
See? It’s always workers who are asked to
sacrifice. (Perhaps a compromise can be
reached. Workers can consider making
concessions the day that politicians start wearing uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we can identify their corporate
sponsors, and the day Rupert Murdoch and
his minions begin telling the truth.) Whatever
happens, workers must not be jettisoned.
A humane nation would not do such a thing.
Part of President-elect Obama’s program calls for job creation. He courageously proposed something akin to “New Deal” policies wherein people would be put to work
re-building our nation’s infrastructure,
manufacturing green cars and electrical grids, and working in any number of other
enterprises. Let’s not allow the
right-wingers or the faint of heart in Congress to undermine our
President-elect. Let’s demand a
structured bailout Let’s end the practice
of sacrificing workers for the misdeeds of the corptocracy that runs rampant in
Finances, Fossil Fuels and Economic Growth
There is a much closer connection
between finances and fossil fuels than most people realize. Namely, modern
finance is based on continued economic growth, which is based on continued
cheap energy.
So as the cheap energy goes away, so does the
growth, then so does the financial system.
There are actually two financial problems: (1)
interest on loans that has to be paid back from the proceeds of future economic
growth, and (2) loans based on "fractional reserve banking" =
leveraging = printing of money, which assumes that not only the interest but
most of the principal of the loan (which is created out of nothing) will
be paid back from the proceeds of future economic growth.
If the growth doesn't happen, either the loans
aren't paid back and you get defaults and deflation, or they are paid back with
more phony money and you get inflation. We were well into peak oil inflation
when the financial system wasn't able to absorb it anymore and switched to
deflation. But neither can the system absorb much deflation, hence the
bailouts, which will lead to a resumption of inflation at some point in the
next few years.
However the deflation and inflation have affected
different parts of our economy. The deflation has applied to things that were
overpriced due to the financial bubble (housing, stocks, ...), while the
inflation has applied to the real economy (food, energy, ...). A good
resolution of the financial crisis will cure the former but not the latter,
which will require a massive investment in "green jobs" (renewable
energy, energy conservation, electric transportation, low energy food
production, ...)
The green jobs are necessary for survival, as they
will mitigate the end of cheap energy. However they will occur in tandem with
inflation unless they are financed by high taxes on luxuries and other means to
reduce sharply reduce the non-essential use of energy and other key resources.
All these considerations are global, and we'll
need a global financial system based on a global currency ("earth
dollars") or something similar that is backed by real value. The real
value of something should be determined by the peoples of the world according
to its contribution toward the long term survival of human civilization.
Fractional reserve banking in all its guises must
be eliminated, to be replaced by a new earth community process for prioritizing
public investment. This public investment would be the only source of the new
global currency. However, in a time of overall decline in real value, instead
of new money there would be a contraction of the money supply via taxes on
things of least real value (luxuries, addictions, ...) Dick
Burkhart
Anson Laytner & Michael Denton: Protect Our Earth
Email
Copied to Dave Thomas
Chairman
Pelz, I am deeply disappointed that your sole focus in celebrating OUR victory
on November 4th and the holiday season is fundraising. Considering so many of us donated time and
money this campaign season that were in short supply, how is it that it is so
expensive to go to a "holiday party" sponsored by MY Democratic
Party.
It is sad that the reason for this is not to celebrate OUR victory or "the
Season" but only to get more money out of those few that can afford to
come. It looks like the party is living
up to the wing nut’s definition of "liberal elites"...
I guess if you can "only" afford to come to the reception, you are
not welcome at the dinner table. Have
you invited any Iraq/Afghanistan veterans? How about a special rate for them? Oh, I see....
”The Reduced Rate applies to the following individuals: Democratic Victory
Circle Members, State Committee Members, and Chairs and Vice-Chairs.” What is my Democratic Party doing to reward
those who gave so much?
I wish Democrats raised more money through regular (annual, quarterly or monthly) contributions from a much larger number of identified and regularly communicated to passionate Democrats. Instead of through expensive events, featuring prominent Democrats. Dave Thomas
Jean Carlson: Carmakers Must
Adapt
World War II caused the auto industry to make tanks -- real ones -- instead of cars almost overnight. Surely it can change again with the right incentives. When there's a will there's a way. Jean Carlson
Liberals and Democrats
Is
Conservatives and commercial media pundits are often
claiming that
Our Democratic Administration and Congress know well that Americans are demanding Liberal Solutions to our present problems caused by Conservative Practices. They stand more chance of losing support if they don’t implement Liberal Solutions than if they do.
A key indicator will be how far they go toward a single payer Medicare for All health coverage system, instead of simply expanding private insurance coverage purchased by employers and employees. To what extent, will they make needed public investments. To what extent will they ask our public to make sacrifices, in particular toward giving up our Borrow, Consume and Speculate habits.
Republicans Can’t
Recover Unless Democrats Fail
Former King County Republican Chairman Reed Davis says Republicans must imitate the Barack Obama-Howard Dean-Democratic plan to create a new grass roots based party. But creating a grass roots based party depends upon expressing principles that appeal to the grass roots. Two possibilities occur:
1. Return to Traditional Conservative Principles of Market Fundamentalism and smaller government. But this approach backed by the remaining Congressional Republicans won’t appeal to the larger public. To sell it requires obtaining campaign contributions from private interests at odds with creating a grassroots organization.
2. Create a Democratic Lite Party which respects diversity, is compassionate, respects our environment, etc. Neither Conservatives or our general public will respond to such a party unless Democrats fail.
For more. For more. For more. For more. For more. For more. For more.
Demographics are important.
Democrats increased their support among African Americans, Hispanic
Americans, Jewish Americans, educated Americans, unmarried women and young
Americans. Republicans increased their
support among less educated Americans, particularly in
Obama Should
Quickly Reverse Bush’s Executive Orders
As his last abominable actions before leaving office, President Bush is rewriting many regulations to reflect his Conservative ideology. Without requiring congressional action, President Obama can quickly reverse or begin the process to reverse these executive orders. Our Congress can later rewrite some of these to improve them and give them a firmer legal basis. For more. For more.
Here’s the Beef
Changing electorate bodes well for long run Liberal success.
Barack Obama delivers first video address (video).
Obama wins (power point presentation)
We can do it all. Yes we can. In These Times will help.
Barack Obama wins through audacious patience. Win quickly by going slowly.
Choice to head House Energy and Commerce Committee will indicate Congressional direction.
Senator Waxman replaces Senator Dingle as House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair. For more.
Grass roots activists are nervous of Obama’s appointment of Washington insiders to get things done.
Tom Daschle’s appointment to HHS indicates commitment to health coverage reform. For more (video).
Will Barack Obama’s foreign policy team continue the mindset that got us into invading Iraq?
Thanks to David Iles for the following three links.
Will Barack Obama’s foreign policy lead to strengthening our military-industrial complex?
See our worldwide network of military bases.
See 31
areas of conflict, including 10 major wars.
Doesn’t include
We’ve had our fill of bipartisan actions in which Democrats supported Republican legislation. For More.
Six things Barack Obama can do to reverse the Bush Administration’s war on our environment.
Barack Obama should immediately take five steps to address global warming.
See what the Freedom Socialist Party says about Barack Obama.
Barack Obama victory triggers a wave of hate crimes.
By opposing a bailout for auto companies, Republicans can say goodbye to Michigan.
Republicans want a male candidate they can drink with. A female candidate they can imagine sex with.
Forget Red versus Blue. It’s smart versus dumb.
Republican congress members reappoint Boehner who presided over loss of 50 seats.
Democrats should counter Republican attempts to control state and local governments.
State and Local
Using Obama’s
Approach to Reform Our Tax System
Barack Obama successfully ran for president with a proposal to make our Federal tax system more progressive. While raising the taxes of our highest income people, he lowered them for the great majority earning less than $250,000. John McCain and other Conservatives continually attacked him for raising taxes during a recession. But most voters were not persuaded by Conservative arguments and misrepresentations.
A forthright leader could take the
same approach to substituting a progressive income tax for some of our
See all of our Washington Tax Reform Commentaries in one document.
Identify Yard Sign Locations to Help Our Candidates
Just before the 2004 general election, I drove the 15 miles of streets in our one mile square Lake Hills Neighborhood to identify locations of yard signs. 84 yard signs were found for Democratic and 44 for Republican Candidates. We knocked on the doors of houses which displayed Democratic Yard Signs in October 2005 to recruit the first members for our Lake Hills Liberals. We found the people who answered our knocks to be passionate Democrats. 90% joined our group.
Just before our recent 2008 general election, I again drove our neighborhood to identify locations of yard signs. This time I found 84 Democratic and 22 Republican yard signs. I would like to think that our work in Lake Hills has made people ashamed to admit that they are Republicans. More likely, they are disgruntled with the actions of President Bush and the Congressional Republicans.
We added these locations to our registered voter database. Combining the 2004 and 2008 lists of Democratic yard sign locations and eliminating the 2004 addresses which had new occupants in 2008, the total number of locations was 127. A list of these addresses with was sent to our three Democratic legislative candidates, as possible yard sign locations for their 2010 races. This saves them time which they can spend meeting voters. Some of the households contain people whose voting preference has not been previously identified, saving us time canvassing them.
Identifying yard sign locations serves another purpose. We have found that most people who display yard signs are not active within the Democratic Party. But they are passionate supporters of their candidates. When asked, they are often willing to serve as monitors to get out the vote of some of their neighbors. Our yard sign locations were evenly distributed among our 12 precincts, about 10 per precinct with fewer in two precincts which have apartments. Thus it is not difficult to recruit 3 monitors for each precinct to each monitor about 30 households of the typically 80 Democratic Households per precinct.
For these reasons, I recommend that all precinct organizers identify households which display Democratic and Republican yard signs. Dave Thomas
Andrew Villeneuve:
BIAW Opposes Democrats
Please make sure you read this: Building Industry Association of Washington
(BIAW) spent heavily to defeat Master Builder supported candidate Liz Loomis. This post details the BIAW's successful
involvement in state legislative races. Including one where they spent money
against a Democrat that Master Builders of King & Snohomish had endorsed
and donated to. BIAW's dirty
fingerprints are to be found in almost every place where we lost a seat to the
Republicans. Andrew Villeneuve leader of Northwest Progressive Institute
Here’s the Beef
Speculation about federal appointments of local politicians.
Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed says Republicans must
imitate Democrats.
Washington State Senate Democrats reappoint top leaders.
Find out the size of our budget deficit and how it occurred.
See some state programs which may be eliminated.
Since it’s difficult to cut K-12 spending, higher education may take a beating.
Northwest scientists study carbon trapping.
Shell agrees to clean up 83 contaminated service station sites.
Avoiding sprawl is necessary to protect our Puget Sound
Mass transit proposals win across the country. For more.
Troubled Indian teenagers make film of tribal history.
Nation
and World
Reclaiming Our American Dream
Our American Dream
is that if we work hard and smart to produce needed products and services, we
will be rewarded with earnings which reflect our production. This occurred during the Golden Era following
World War II until the oil shocks and stagflation of the 1970s and the union
busting began during our Reagan Presidency.
Since then, our earnings have been a smaller proportion of our
production, with a larger proportion going to companies, inflating the stock
market and fueling speculation.
To reclaim our American
Dream, we must increase our public and private investment to produce jobs and
adopt measures to ensure that workers obtain earnings which are a fair share of
their production. One of the first
priorities of our Obama administration must be making public investment and
stimulating private investment to create jobs which serve our needs for
infrastructure, conservation, non-carbon based energy, and research and
development of other needed technologies.
For more, see Campaign for America’s
Future. For
more. We must also make earnings
fair through promoting appropriate competition, promoting unionization, and
increasing our minimum wage and earned income tax credit. Making quality health care and education
universally available will also increase wages and reduce costs.
Even after
eliminating unhelpful government programs and subsidies and reestablishing fair
tax rates for our high income people, making investments for health, education
and jobs will require some deficit spending.
But such Keynesian deficits are appropriate to stimulate our depressed
economy. As the economy recovers, our
deficits will shrink as a proportion of our economy, as they did during our
Golden Era. Our largest obstacle to
making these necessary changes is our Borrow, Consume, and Speculate
mindset. For more. For more.
Bailing Out Bad Financial Companies
AIG insured many
financial companies against losses from their mystery securities, which they
never should have bought in the first place.
These financial companies didn’t adequately assess the mystery
securities or the ability of AIG to pay for any losses. It would serve them right if these insured
financial companies took their financial losses. And if AIG was allowed to go bankrupt.
On the pretext that
these financial companies were essential to provision of needed consumer and
investment credit, our government bailed out AIG with $85 billion and now is
ready to bail it out again with much more. Notice that Henry Paulson and others
involved in the bailouts have backgrounds working for the financial companies
that speculated and lost. Even after
obtaining the first bailout, AIG
is enriching its management instead of paying off insurance claims. We could sure purchase a lot of health care
or education with $85 billion and much more.
I repeat that to
restore credit, we should identify those banks (mostly small and regional) and credit
unions which avoided speculating with mystery securities. We should loan them enough money for them to
provide the credit we need. This not
only rewards the good financial companies instead of the bad ones. It also produces more banking competition,
instead of increasing the lobbying clout of already giant financial
companies. Dave Thomas
Substitute Affordable Housing for Foreclosure
Housing prices have
declined an average of 20%. Housing
prices which historically have equaled 15 times rental prices. During the bubble, they reached 26 times and
are now at 22 times rental prices. They
need to drop 25% more to reach a sustainable level of 3-3.5 times median
household incomes.
As housing prices
decline, many houses are worth less then their mortgages, tempting owners to
allow foreclosures. Securitization of
the mortgages (bundling them into securities) which have been sold to
speculators makes refinancing them difficult.
One alternative is for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or other government
agencies to buy the homes for 15% less than their value, then sell them as
affordable housing at a lower price with lower interest rates, giving present
occupants the first choice to buy them. These
affordable houses would be sold on the condition that they could be resold only
at their present price adjusted for inflation.
Such a solution
relieves the financial companies which own the mortgages from maintaining
foreclosed mortgages, the owners of the houses from foreclosure, and the
neighborhoods from the deterioration which results from foreclosed houses. It also provides affordable houses, which if
near jobs can reduce urban sprawl, commuting, congestion, and pollution. A mess which affects all of us can be turned
into an opportunity to benefit all of us.
Dave Thomas
Here’s
the Beef
If China’s economy falters, its political leadership may be at risk.
Contrary to Conservative Ideology, higher taxes produce economic growth.
Our news media ignored protecting consumers, while promoting their consumption.
Our news media should have anticipated our housing and credit crises.
We must regulate derivatives. Maybe they should be eliminated.
Highly leveraged hedge funds are collapsing.
Citibank will have laid off 27% of its employees. We need to reduce our financial sector by 60%.
Laid off financial employees may find more constructive jobs in new technology startups.
Career advice for laid off financial workers.
Higher income workers may be more vulnerable to layoffs.
Pros and Cons of bailing out American auto companies.
Lobbyists are pushing to benefit from stimulus packages and bailouts.
Business Week Commentator criticizes business practices, which should be changed.
U.S. companies are lowering or eliminating their contributions to employee retirement.
Many subprime lenders made money while avoiding fraudulent practices.
Our new Treasury Secretary shouldn’t have a wall street ties with bad financial companies.
Global leaders are blind to globalization’s ill effects.
Representative Barney Frank calls for 25% reduction ($150 billion) in our military budget.
Our Iraq military and reconstruction contracts included massive fraud.
How we must end private military contractor immunity.
Our Environmental Protection Agency should be completely rebuilt.
Due to global warming, bye bye water.
Don’t substitute natural gas for oil. Use green electricity.
Treat marijuana like tobacco, cut user rates in half without jailing 20 million users.
Keith Olbermann expressed disgust with those who voted to ban GLBT marriages (video). For more.
Our Liberal Spirit
How
about Healthier Holidays?
Happy
Thanksgiving (video). Thanksgiving
is my favorite holiday. Gathering with
family and friends. Enjoying good food
and conversation. Appreciating the
bounties of our lives together. I am
generally unhappy with our other holidays.
Christmas is far too
commercial. It is an orgy of borrowing
and consuming. Of excess. Together with New Year’s day, it should be a
time of death and resurrection. We
should accept the end of the last year and the beginning of a new one. We should reflect on our past year. Celebrate our successes. Confess and Mourn our failures. Dedicate our selves to our next year. To sacrifice ourselves for the common good as
well as my own.
Our Fourth of July
is too noisy and filled with self congratulations upon our imagined exceptional
virtues compared with the rest of the world.
Instead we should celebrate more like people did on election eve. We should celebrate our togetherness as one
nation and dedicate ourselves to closeness and cooperation. We should celebrate our progress and dedicate
ourselves to our never ending struggle to continue our progress. We should give ourselves the spirit strength
to persevere in the face of discomfort and setbacks.
Our Halloween is an abomination of scary children begging for unhealthy food. Suppose instead, that our children made gift cards or other handicrafts which they gave to their neighbors, thanking them for their presence, protection and support. The children might also offer to do odd jobs as volunteers or for pay. The neighbors might then offer healthy treats such as fruits, nuts, popcorn. Neighbors might also offer to pay them for various tasks. Previously defined neighborhood cleanup and beautification projects might be communicated. Dress might be more like a masked ball with people dressing in ethnic or other attractive costumes or regalia.
I have a better opinion of our mothers, fathers, presidential and veterans holidays as times to reflect on what others have done for us and our gratitude. They might also include a dedication to pass on the good that has been provided us. Dave Thomas
Recommended Books – See our list of books for
liberals
John Zogby, 2008, The Way We’ll Be, The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream
Pollster John Zogby informs us that our American Dream is changing toward:
· Living with Limits as consumers and citizens
· Embracing Diversity of views and ways of life
· Looking inward to find spiritual comfort, and demanding authenticity from media, political leaders, businesses and other institutions.
It sounds like we are becoming more Liberal.
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Hire Our Lake Hills Neighbors
· Auto Repair, price varies depending on job (but always fair), Jaime Speicher (AAS Auto Repair Technician) (425-746-2353)
·
Babysitting for infants (occasional
evenings and weekends) - $5 per hour-
·
Data Entry- $10 per 12 font, double
spaced page-
· Debt Elimination Counseling, Seminars and Workshops – price negotiable – Sherry Brandt (206-356-8034, somerev2@comcast.net)
·
Home Repair- prices vary, depending
on job-
·
Home
Repair and Remodeling,
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Housekeeper,
price negotiable –
·
Life
Support Therapies,
· Private Piano Lessons (students must have a piano), afternoons - Anna Khosrowian (378-7938), price negotiable
·
Psychotherapist,
accepts insurance - Sandy Mathews
(462-7889, www.sandramathews.com)